The Italian legal clinics movement: Data and prospects

Abstract

It is not more than 5 years since legal clinics were founded in Italian Universities: a very recent history indeed and similar to that of other Western European countries. I will try to explain this through some data collected by an inquiry that I ran in order to have a more detailed map of this phenomena and to conjecture its future evolution.

In the following paragraphs I will present the data inquiry and I will try to explain the process of establishing the Italian movement for legal education, its options and challenges.

It is worth pointing out why I use the term “movement”. What is going on in Italy, and I think elsewhere, is not simply the proliferation of single clinics, but the emergence of a new wave in academia. On the basis of the clinician idea and history, Italian scholars involved in this process are formulating a different way to teach law, and a different view of law too. I think it is not by chance that many of the pioneers of clinical education have a philosophical background or a highly speculative approach.

It would seem strange that such a practical teaching style is promoted by the most theoretical part of the law faculty staff. The reason for this is probably that the clinician approach needs a paradigm shift through a more realistic, critical and socially committed conception of law.